Applications for carbon nanotubes are enormous due to their mechanical, thermal, and electronic properties. Incorporation and dispersion of carbon nanotubes into polymers have proven difficult due to the inherent bundling of the carbon nanotube due to van der waal forces and incompatability at the polymer/nanotube (NT) interface.
Pristine nanotubes are generally insoluble/incompatible in common solvents, oligomers and polymers. Such nanotubes are also difficult to chemically functionalize without altering the desirable intrinsic properties of nanotubes. Single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) have been solubilized/dispersed in organic solvents and water by polymer wrapping (Dalton et al., (J. Phys. Chem. B (2000) 104, 10012); Star et al. (Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. (2001) 40, 1721), and O'Connell et al. (Chem. Phys. Lett. (2001) 342, 265)), and non-covalently functionalized by adhesion of small molecules for protein immobilization (Chen et al., (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 123:3838 (2001))). The polymer wrapping approach works poorly for dissolution of small diameter SWNTs possibly due to unfavorable polymer conformations.
One known process for non-covalent functionalization and for dispersion of carbon nanotubes is described by Chen, J. et al. (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 124, 9034 (2002)), incorporated herein by reference. The process results in nanotube dispersion using a non-wrapping approach. Specifically, SWNTs were solubilized in chloroform with poly(phenylene ethynylene)s (PPE) along with vigorous shaking and/or short bath-sonication as described by Chen et al. (ibid) and in U.S. Patent Publication No. U.S. 2004/0034177 published Feb. 19, 2004, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/318,730.
The chemistry of arene-silver(I) complexes is well established. Many examples exist in the literature to demonstrate the ability of Ag(I) to coordinate to polyaromatic systems in a π-bonding fashion (see, for example, Megumu et. al., Coordination Chemistry Reviews 2000, 198, 171-203).
Further, the use and development of certain types of metal complexes based upon an organic material being coordinate-bonded to the metal cation is more fully described in PCT Publication No. WO 2007/139244.
The development of metal complexes for compatibilizing nanomaterials, related compositions, and methods therefore, is on-going, and at least one more development is provided herein.